Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sports

Summer Olympics The 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics were scheduled to take place in Tokyo, starting 24 July and 25 August, respectively. Although the Japanese government had taken extra precautions to help minimize the outbreak's impact in the country, qualifying events were being canceled or postponed almost daily. According to Japanese public broadcaster NHK, Tokyo 2020 organizing-committee chief executive Toshiro Muto voiced concerns on 5 February that COVID-19 might "throw cold water on the momentum toward the Games." The traditional Olympic flame lighting ceremony in Olympia, Greece, to mark the start of the 2020 Summer Olympics torch relay was held on 12 March without spectators. On 23 March, Canada, Australia, and Great Britain announced that they would withdraw from the Games unless they are postponed to 2021. On 24 March 2020, the IOC and Tokyo Organizing Committee announced that the 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics would be "rescheduled to a date beyond 2020 but not later than summer 2021", marking the first time in the history of the modern Olympics that an Olympiad has been postponed. The opening ceremonies of the Games were officially rescheduled to 23 July 2021, or 1,797 days from the most recent Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The cost of postponing the Olympics to 2021 was estimated to be US$5.8 billion, which included the cost of maintaining the unused venues. The organizing committee published various planned safety protocols for athletes, spectators, and members of the press. It was recommended that athletes be vaccinated, but they were not required to do so. On 20 March 2021, citing international travel restrictions and the need to ensure the safety of athletes, it was announced that no spectators or guests from outside of Japan would be allowed to attend the Games. This included both ticketed spectators and the supporters of athletes. While there were initially plans to allow venues to operate at half capacity (to a maximum of 10,000 spectators), it was ultimately announced that nearly the entirety of the Games would be held behind closed doors. Furthermore, the 2024 Summer Olympics and Paralympics that were held in Paris, France on 26 July and 28 August 2024 respectively as onto the normal 4-year Olympiad schedule, were also impacted due to shorter duration ( or 1,083 days) between the last Olympics. Winter Olympics Although the 2022 Winter Olympics hosted by Beijing, China kept their original start date of 4 February 2022 and went ahead as scheduled, the pandemic impacted qualifying in specific sports such as curling—where the World Curling Federation announced a proposal to have qualification be dependent on performance in the 2021 world championships (whose top teams will automatically qualify) and a final qualification tournament, as opposed to the previous plan of having qualification determined by both the 2020 and 2021 world championships. Qualification for the women's hockey tournament was to be determined by IIHF World Rankings after the 2020 Women's World Championship. As the tournament was cancelled, the existing rankings going into the tournament were used instead. Like in the Tokyo Summer Olympics, the games were held behind closed doors but domestic spectators were allowed to participate. World Games The World Games in Birmingham, Alabama, were scheduled for July 2021, but because of the rescheduling of the 2020 Summer Olympics, the eleventh World Games went ahead in July 2022 instead. Arctic Winter Games The 2020 Arctic Winter Games were cancelled. Additionally, the 2022 Arctic Winter Games was postponed to 2023. SEA Games/ASEAN Para Games The 2020 ASEAN Para Games in the Philippines were cancelled and 2021 SEA Games in Hanoi were postponed. The 2021 ASEAN Para Games in Hanoi were postponed to 2022 and moved to Surakarta mid-preparation. Summer World University Games The 2021 Summer World University Games in Chengdu, China were postponed to 2023. Winter University The 2021 Winter Universiade in Lucerne, Switzerland, was first moved from 21–31 January to 11–21 December; on 29 November the event was cancelled. World Masters Games The 2021 World Masters Games, originally scheduled to be held in Japan in May, were indefinitely postponed after 2022, the organisation announced on 28 October. On 12 January 2021, it was announced that the 2021 Games would be scheduled for 13–29 May 2022. It was postponed to 2026. X Games X Games Chongli 2020 was postponed. X Games Minneapolis 2020 was cancelled. ==National multi-sport governing-body competitions==

Canada U Sports curtailed its men's and women's ice hockey championships on 12 March 2020. On 8 June, U Sports announced that it had cancelled all national championships for the fall semester of the 2020–21 academic year, including Canadian football (the first time the Vanier Cup was not contested since its inception), cross-country, field hockey, women's rugby, and soccer. On 15 October 2020, U Sports announced it would do the same thing for the winter 2021 portion of the 2020–21, once again cancelling all winter national championships as well. Atlantic University Sport, Canada West, and Ontario University Athletics followed suit, suspending all university athletics programs initially through to 31 December 2020, but was later extended through to 31 March 2021, as announced on 15 October 2020. Ireland The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Republic of Ireland had a significant impact on the conduct of sports, affecting both competitive sports leagues and tournaments and recreational sports. The Gaelic games of football, hurling, camogie, and ladies' football saw all competitions suspended from 12 March 2020. The National Hurling League, National Football League, National Camogie League and Ladies' National Football League were suspended, with competitions not intended to resume until 29 March at the earliest. Philippines In the Philippines, NCAA Season 95 and UAAP Season 82 were both indefinitely suspended. NCAA Season 95 was terminated on 19 March after the then community quarantine in Luzon was upgraded to an "enhanced community quarantine", in effect a lockdown. UAAP Season 82 was canceled on 7 April, after the enhanced community quarantine was extended to 30 April. On 1 May, the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation, Inc. (CESAFI) decided to cancel their 2020 season. United Kingdom On 16 March 2020, British Universities and Colleges Sport, the UK organisation for university sport, announced that all fixtures from 17 March to 1 April would not take place. Some individual events, like the orienteering and windsurfing championships were canceled entirely, while others were postponed indefinitely. United States On 6 March 2020, in the first round of the NCAA Division III men's basketball tournament, a game played at Johns Hopkins University between Yeshiva University and Worcester Polytechnic Institute became the first U.S. sporting event to be played without fans in attendance, after a student at Yeshiva University tested positive for COVID-19. On 11 March 2020, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) — the main U.S.A. sanctioning body for college athletics — initially announced that its winter-semester championships and tournaments, including its popular "March Madness" men's basketball tournament and the women's basketball tournament, would be conducted behind closed doors with "only essential staff and limited family attendance". The following day, in respect of the suspension of the NBA season and other professional sports leagues, the NCAA announced that all remaining championship events for the 2019–20 academic year would be canceled entirely, resulting in the first cancellation in the 81-year history of the NCAA basketball tournament. This created a de facto mythical national championship situation. Other American multi-sports organizations—the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), and California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA)—also canceled their seasons. Additionally the Community College level sports governing bodies restored the season of eligibility to athletes who had already participated in the 2020 spring season. On 12 May 2020, because the California State University system announced that in-person classes would remain suspended through the fall 2020 semester, the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA)—a 12-member NCAA Division II conference consisting entirely of CSU campuses—announced that it would also suspend its fall athletics season. The Patriot League, an NCAA Division I conference that competes in the second level of D1 Football, the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), initially announced on 22 June that while it would hold its fall sports seasons, its teams would not fly to any competitions, and overnight travel would only be allowed on a case-by-case basis. Another FCS conference, the Ivy League, announced on 8 July that it was canceling all fall sports, and that winter sports (whose seasons normally begin during the fall academic term) would not begin play until after the end of the fall term. It left open the possibility of shifting its fall sports, including football, to the spring. The Patriot League would later cancel its fall sports season entirely on 13 July, but gave the two federally operated service academies among its membership, Army and Navy, the option to play fall sports as they saw fit. While the academies are full members of the Patriot League, their football teams play outside the conference in the top-level Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The days following the Ivy League's cancellation of fall sports saw two of the major "Power Five" conferences of FBS announce that if fall sports were played, only in-conference matchups would take place. The Big Ten Conference made this announcement on 9 July, with the Pac-12 Conference doing the same the next day. Both conferences later chose to hold abbreviated conference-only football seasons, with the Big Ten starting play on the weekend of 24 October and the Pac-12 on the weekend of 7 November. In August, the NCAA announced that the Division II and Division III Presidents Councils decided to cancel national championships in all fall sports. In September, it was announced that 2020 Division I championships administered by NCAA in fall sports (cross country, field hockey, football soccer, women's volleyball and men's water polo) would be rescheduled to spring 2021, and conducted with a 25% reduction in championship participants. Matches played in fall or spring would count toward qualification. The Football Bowl Subdivision was not included as it is not an NCAA-administered championship. In December, the NCAA announced that 2021 Division II championship events in winter and spring sports would also have a 25% overall reduction in participants (individual sports varied from 17 to 34% based on logistics) to mitigate costs of testing and health protocols, as well as lost income. Programs located in the state of New Mexico and in Santa Clara County, California had to relocate practices and games because of legislative bans on any competitive sport requiring physical contact. At the University of New Mexico, the football team moved its first two home games to the sites of their opponents and the last two to Sam Boyd Stadium in Whitney, Nevada, in Clark County near Las Vegas; while the men's basketball team moved to Lubbock, Texas and played home games at Lubbock Christian University. New Mexico State moved its men's basketball program to Phoenix, Arizona and used Arizona Christian University as its home court. San Jose State University's football team played its regular-season finale and championship game at Sam Boyd, while the men's basketball team played home games at Kaiser Permanente Arena in Santa Cruz. The same venue hosted early-season home games of the Stanford University and Santa Clara University men's basketball teams. Long-term effects The financial fallout from the pandemic was specifically cited by the following schools in their decisions to drop certain sports programs: ;Effective in 2020–21 • University of Akron – Men's cross country, men's golf, women's tennis • University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) – Men's and women's tennis, Men's ice hockey • Appalachian State University – Men's indoor track & field, men's soccer, men's tennis • Boise State University – Baseball, women's swimming & diving • Central Michigan University – Men's indoor and outdoor track & field • Chicago State University – Baseball • University of Cincinnati – Men's soccer • Dartmouth College – Men's and women's golf and men's and women's swimming & diving, as well as the non-NCAA sport of men's lightweight rowing. • East Carolina University – Men's and women's swimming & diving, men's and women's tennis • Florida Institute of Technology – Football • Furman University – Baseball, men's lacrosse • University of Wisconsin–Green Bay – Men's and women's tennis • Hampton University – Men's and women's golf • Lincoln University (Missouri) – Bowling • University of Northern Colorado – Men's and women's tennis • Old Dominion University – Men's wrestling • St. Edward's University – Men's and women's golf, men's and women's tennis, men's soccer. Cheerleading, which had been a recognized varsity sport though not under NCAA governance, was downgraded to a club sport under the umbrella of the university's recreation department. • Seattle Pacific University – Women's gymnastics • Sonoma State University – Men's and women's tennis, women's water polo • Southern Utah University – Men's and women's tennis • Winthrop University – Men's and women's tennis • Wright State University – Softball, men's and women's tennis ;Effective in 2021–22 • University of Alaska Anchorage – Women's gymnastics, men's ice hockey, skiing • Clemson University – Men's cross country, men's indoor and outdoor track & field • California State University, Fresno (Fresno State) – Women's lacrosse, men's tennis, men's wrestling • George Washington University – NCAA-sanctioned sports dropped were men's tennis, men's indoor track and field, and women's water polo. Non-NCAA varsity sports dropped were men's rowing, coed sailing, and men's and women's squash. • University of Iowa – Men's gymnastics, men's and women's swimming & diving, men's tennis • La Salle University – Baseball, softball, men's swimming & diving, men's and women's tennis, women's volleyball, men's water polo • Michigan State University – Men's and women's swimming & diving • University of Minnesota – Men's gymnastics, men's tennis, men's indoor track & field • San Diego State University – Women's rowing • Stanford University – NCAA-sanctioned sports dropped were fencing, field hockey, men's volleyball, and wrestling. Non-NCAA varsity sports dropped were lightweight rowing, men's rowing, coed and women's sailing, squash, and synchronized swimming. • University of Connecticut (UConn) – Men's cross country, women's rowing, men's swimming & diving, men's tennis Additionally, the New York Institute of Technology suspended its entire athletic program for two seasons, after which it will reconsider the decision. Similarly, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff announced that it was "suspending" its men's and women's tennis teams for the 2020–21 school year, citing the pandemic, but did not officially eliminate the tennis program. UAH initially dropped men's ice hockey alongside both of its tennis teams, but a successful fundraising drive by alumni and team supporters led the school to reinstate hockey a week later. Similarly, Bowling Green State University announced that it would drop its baseball team, but a successful fundraising effort led to the team being reinstated. The University of Minnesota, which had announced plans to drop four men's sports effective in 2021–22, announced that one of these sports—namely outdoor track & field—would be spared discontinuation, pending a further review of the school's sports offerings in spring 2021. The fallout from this move led the school's athletic director to resign a month after the announcement. W&M eventually reversed their decision completely, restoring the three women's sports on 19 October and announcing on 5 November that the four men's sports would continue to be sponsored through at least 2021–22. MacMurray College, Notre Dame de Namur University, and Urbana University announced that they would wind down operations and close due to economic issues caused or exacerbated by the pandemic—effectively ending the entirety of their athletics programs. In August 2020, officials at the University of California, Riverside, a Division I member, publicly announced that shutting down the school's entire athletic program was one possible option to address pandemic-related financial challenges. As of mid-October, no decision on the program's future had yet been reached. ==Alpine skiing==

The 2019–20 FIS Alpine Ski World Cup ended two weeks earlier after World Cup races in Sweden, Slovenia, and Italy scheduled for March were canceled. An earlier February World Cup race was moved from China to Austria. The 2020–21 FIS Alpine Ski World Cup also saw a number of races in January rescheduled from Wengen to Kitzbühel to Flachau. ==Archery==

The opening three stages of the 2020 Archery World Cup were postponed. Other events postponed include the Pan American Archery Championships, which were scheduled to be held in Monterrey, Mexico, from 23 to 29 March, and the European Para-Archery Championships, which were scheduled to be held in Olbia, Italy, from 18 to 26 April. On 15 July it was announced that the 2020 Archery World Cup would be cancelled. ==Association football==

The 2020 World Athletics Indoor Championships were scheduled to be held from 13 to 15 March in Nanjing, China, but were postponed until March 2021. The 2020 World Athletics Half Marathon Championships was scheduled to be held on 29 March in Gdynia, Poland, but was postponed until October 2020. The first three events of the 2020 Diamond League, scheduled to be held in Qatar in April, followed by two events in China in May, were postponed until later in the year. On 12 May, a revised schedule was issued, but no points will be awarded for the events. The 2020 Boston Marathon, originally scheduled for 20 April, was postponed until 14 September before being canceled completely on 28 May. On 28 October, organisers announced that the 2021 Boston Marathon would not be held on Patriots' Day (19 April) as usual, to be rescheduled to sometime in the fall. Organisers cited an ongoing ban on road races in Massachusetts. The race was finally held on 11 October, another federal holiday, Columbus Day. The race returned to its original date in 2022. The 2020 London Marathon, scheduled to take place on 26 April, was postponed until 4 October and was restricted to elites only. The 2021 and 2022 editions of the London Marathon were also held in October to maximise the chances of a mass participation event. The 2023 edition of the race returned to its normal spring date. It would be cancelled on 24 June. The 2020 New York City Marathon was cancelled. The 2020 Tokyo Marathon was restricted to elite competitors only. The 2021 Tokyo Marathon was postponed to 2022, and the 2022 Tokyo Marathon was cancelled. The 2020 Chicago Marathon was cancelled. The 2020 Rome Marathon was cancelled, as was the Toronto Waterfront Marathon. The 2020 Grandma's Marathon, scheduled for 20 June, was canceled by the organizers more than 50 days before it was to begin. They announced on 31 March that the marathon, the half-marathon, and the 5K would all be canceled. Two of the Standard Chartered 2020 marathon series, Hong Kong Marathon and Kuala Lumpur Marathon was cancelled by the organizer over uncertainty of the COVID-19 outbreak. Both the 2020 and 2021 editions of the Big Sur International Marathon were cancelled. On 2 November 2020, organisers moved the 2021 Publix Atlanta Marathon (typically held inside Fulton County with a primary emphasis of Centennial Olympic Park) south to the 840 acre Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia (Henry County) where it was held on access roads and campgrounds, finishing inside the speedway oval. The 2020 Abu Dhabi Marathon, scheduled to be held in December, was postponed until 2021. The 2020 Two Oceans Marathon, scheduled for 8–11 April, was cancelled. The 2021 edition was also cancelled. The 2020 and 2021 Comrades Marathons were cancelled. The Atlanta Track Club originally moved the Peachtree Road Race from 4 July to 26 November, but the race was cancelled on 19 August 2020. Organisers then moved the PNC Atlanta 10 Miler, typically held in Atlantic Station, to Michelin Raceway in Hall County, a motorsport closed circuit within a 100 km radius of Atlanta. The race was renamed the PNC Atlanta 10 Miler: Extreme Hills Edition and run exclusively on the road course, pit lane, and driving school courses. The 2020 Three Peaks Race, originally scheduled for 25 April, was postponed to 26 September. ==Australian rules football==

in September 2020 At the conclusion of its first round of games (played from 19 to 22 March), the 2020 AFL season was suspended until 11 June, while the finals series of the 2020 AFL Women's season was cancelled after its semi-finals were played, with no premiership awarded. Both the AFL Women's semi-finals and the first round of the AFL season were played in empty stadiums. The 2020 Australian Football International Cup, scheduled to be held between 21 July and 8 August on the Sunshine Coast, was at first postponed until 2021 and then cancelled altogether. The annual Australian Football Hall of Fame induction event was instead held over four nights as a series of television shows with pre-recorded vision and interviews with the inductees. The AFL Women's best and fairest awards were also changed to be a television-only event, with the players being livestreamed from their homes. At levels below the fully professional AFL, most leagues either cancelled their entire season or significantly delayed the start. Player payments were cut to zero in the South Australian National Football League. The 2020 AFL season later resumed; however, many games, particularly in the early rounds, were played without crowds (or significantly restricted crowds). The league reduced the playing time by 20%, with games split into four 16-minute quarters instead of four 20-minute quarters. Other smaller changes were also added due to the pandemic. On 28 June, officials in the state of Queensland announced a travel ban to and from the state of Victoria. The AFL then relocated all games scheduled for Victoria to other states for that week and the following week. Then, on 15 July, the AFL announced that all teams based in Victoria would relocate to either Queensland or Western Australia for the rest of the season. This resulted from Victoria ordering a six-week lockdown to deal with a surge in cases. On 21 July, the AFL announced an accelerated schedule for Rounds 9 through 12, with games played daily from 29 July to 17 August. Two games were played on selected Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays during this period. In addition, matches were not played in New South Wales due to an increase in coronavirus cases in that state. The remaining games of the 2020 season were played predominantly in Queensland and South Australia, as well as Western Australia and the Northern Territory. Crowd levels were capped, but by the conclusion of the season, crowds of over 20,000 were able to attend games. The 2020 Grand Final was held on 24 October, around a month later than usual, at the Gabba, in Brisbane, Queensland—the first time the grand final was played outside of Victoria. In 2021, due to an outbreak of the virus in Victoria, all games in the state in Round 11 had no crowds, and all games were played outside of Victoria in Round 12. Additionally, Round 7 of the VFL and Round 13 of the VFLW were postponed, and in Round 8 of the VFL, only games between non-Victorian teams proceeded as scheduled. As the season wore on, it was becoming increasingly clear that the 2021 Grand Final could not take place in front of a crowd at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, as hoped. For the second year in a row, it was relocated, this time to Optus Stadium in Perth. The 2022 season mostly went ahead as intended, as 95% of the adult population had by then been vaccinated to the two-dose standard. The AFL maintained a strict vaccination requirement and implemented a generous top-up list to compensate for self-isolating players. The 2022 grand final eclipsed 100,000 spectators for the first time since 2019. Financial losses Like many professional sports leagues, the AFL sustained heavy operating losses during the first couple years, as it scrambled to mitigate the financial damage of the pandemic. In 2020, the AFL posted a loss, while 2021 saw an additional in losses, totalling in the worst-affected seasons. ==Badminton==

Originally, all scheduled Badminton World Federation tournaments were suspended until 12 April due to coronavirus concerns. The affected tournaments were Swiss Open, India Open, Orléans Masters, Malaysia Open, and Singapore Open. Previously the body had suspended the German Open and pushed the Lingshui China Masters from February to May 2020. The 2020 Thomas & Uber Cup was originally scheduled for 15–23 August, but on 29 April it was postponed to 3–11 October after Denmark extended a ban on "larger gatherings" to 31 August. On 15 September, it was again postponed, and on 21 December, it was announced that the tournament would take place on 9–17 October 2021. In the end, all tournaments through 11 October were suspended, and World Rankings were frozen from 17 March 2020 to 2 February 2021. ==Baseball==

The 2019–20 Biathlon World Cup ended eight days earlier than previously scheduled. The World Cup final in Norway was cancelled as was the last day of the penultimate World Cup in Finland. Before the races in Finland and Norway, the World Cup races in Nové Město, Czech Republic, 5–8 March, were held without spectators. The 2020–21 Biathlon World Cup changed some locations to minimize travel between venues. The 2020–21 IBU Junior Cup and some events of the 2020–21 IBU Cup were cancelled. ==Bodybuilding==

Several competitive events in international competitive bodybuilding on the amateur and professional levels have seen limitations, postponements, or even cancellations due to concerns about the spread of COVID-19. Due to these concerns Ohio governor Mike DeWine reduced the 2020 Arnold Sports Festival in Columbus, Ohio on 3 March, before any cases or deaths had been reported in the state. The cancellation was widely regarded as 'radical' at the time. The Fitness Expo (under orders from the state government) held the bodybuilding and physique competitions, including the Arnold Classic, without spectators with exceptions for parents and guardians of minors participating in the competitions. Similar Arnold Sports Festivals planned to be held in Africa, Australia, and South America were postponed for later in the year. On 16 March 2020, Jim Manion, president of the IFBB Professional League and the National Physique Committee announced that competitions planned through to 10 May 2020 in the United States would be postponed for later in the year or canceled until the 2021 season. ==Bowls==

The 2020 World Outdoor Bowls Championship, scheduled to be held on the Gold Coast from 23 May to 7 June 2020, was postponed to 25 May to 6 June 2021 before being officially cancelled on 9 March 2021. ==Castells==

In response to the shutdown of extracurricular activities for children in Catalonia, the Coordinadora de Colles Castelleres de Catalunya (CCCC), the governing body for castells (Catalan human towers), issued a statement on 10 March 2020, recommending the suspension of all castells practices and performances. Subsequently, the lockdown imposed throughout Spain shut down all castells activities throughout Catalonia as of 15 March. The postponement to 2022 of the Tarragona Castells Contest, scheduled for 3 and 4 October 2020, was finally announced on 15 July 2020. Another major castells festival, the Festes Decennals de la Mare de Déu de la Candela, held only once every ten years and scheduled for 29 January – 7 February 2021, was also postponed. If held in 2022 as tentatively planned, it would be the first time since it was founded in 1791 that it would be held in a year not ending in 1. According to the CCCC, the last April without any castells was in 1966. ==Chess==

The 44th Chess Olympiad scheduled to take place in Moscow, Russia, from 5–17 August 2020 was postponed and rescheduled for the summer of 2021. The FIDE Candidates Tournament 2020, held in Yekaterinburg, Russia, was suspended at the mid-point of the tournament on 26 March. FIDE decided to postpone the second half of the tournament after Russia announced it would be interrupting air traffic with other countries starting on 27 March. ==Combat sports==

2019–20 FIS Cross-Country World Cup The 2020 Holmenkollen Ski Festival in Oslo, Norway, part of the 2019–20 FIS Cross-Country World Cup, was held on 78 March, without spectators in the stadium part of the Holmenkollen National Arena. The final two events of the World Cup season, the 2020 Sprint Tour (1417 March, in Quebec City, Canada and Minneapolis, United States) and the 2020 World Cup Finals (2021 March, in Canmore, Canada), were cancelled on 12 and 13 March. 2020–21 FIS Cross-Country World Cup The Swedish Ski Association elected not to send a full squad of skiers and support staff for the first round of the 2020–21 FIS Cross-Country World Cup in Rukatunturi, Finland, 27–29 November. The second round of the World Cup, to be held in Lillehammer, Norway, 4–6 December, was postponed on 12 November, due to the current status of COVID-19 prevention measures, with a new date to be announced later. On 1 December, the Norwegian Ski Federation (NSF) announced that they would not send any skiers to take part in the World Cup events in Davos, Switzerland, and Dresden, Germany, in December, and possibly not take part in the Tour de Ski, which was planned to begin on 1 January 2021. Espen Bjervig, manager of the NSF's cross-country section said the decision was based on "the risk of travelling, we have experienced that keeping distance and avoiding close contact in the World Cup arena is more demanding than we first assumed", and that "endurance athletes have their lungs as a tool, and we do not know the after-effects of COVID-19. Therefore, we must take precautions". On 2 December, the Swedish Ski Association and the Finnish Ski Association announced that they would mirror Norway's decision, and not send any skiers to the events in Davos and Dresden. International Ski Federation (FIS) marketing director Jürg Capol was critical of the three countries pulling out of the events and said "We need solidarity. If it's not given it's going to be hard to find (competition) arrangers in the future", and added that "Of course all nations must make their own decisions. The problem is not that they can not get to the competitions, but that they themselves have chosen not to go there". On 4 December, the FIS cancelled the World Cup races in Beijing, China, citing travel restrictions amid the coronavirus pandemic, "including a current mandatory 14-day quarantine for all international visitors" in China. The races were supposed to be held 19–21 March, and would have acted as a dress rehearsal for the upcoming 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. The FIS said they would be looking for a replacement host for the races. On 9 December, the NSF announced that it would not send any skiers to take part in the 2021 Tour de Ski. 2021 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships The 2021 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships, from 22 February to 7 March, in Oberstdorf, Germany, were planned to go ahead as scheduled. The organiser set a limit of two thousand spectators around the cross-country trails. ==Curling==

The curling season typically ends in May but was cut short by the pandemic, effectively ending in early March. The World Curling Federation cancelled the last five championships scheduled for the 2019–20 curling season, most importantly the 2020 World Women's Curling Championship, 2020 World Men's Curling Championship, and 2020 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship. The Grand Slam of Curling cancelled its two remaining events of the 2019–20 season, the Champions Cup and Players' Championship. For the 2020–21 season, Curling Canada postponed the Canada Cup, and cancelled various other events such as the Continental Cup (due to international travel restrictions), Canadian Mixed Curling Championship, Canadian Curling Club Championships, Canadian Junior Curling Championships and Canadian U18 Curling Championships, among others. In December 2020, Curling Canada re-located its remaining 2021 championships to a bubble in Calgary, including the 2021 World Men's Curling Championship. On 2 December 2020, the World Curling Federation postponed the 2021 World Wheelchair-B Curling Championship, the inaugural 2021 World Wheelchair Mixed Doubles Curling Championship (although referring to it as a cancellation, World Curling stated that it was exploring rescheduling the event), and cancelled the 2021 World Senior Curling Championships for the second straight year, citing a need to prioritize events with implications on qualification for the 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics. Due to the cancellation of the 2020 world championships, it was announced that the top six teams in the world men's, women's, and mixed doubles championships would qualify their respective National Olympic Committee for the Olympics (rather than the previous plan of using points earned during the 2020 and 2021 world championships), with a final qualification tournament held in December 2021 to fill the remaining spots. However, in early March, the tournament was reinstated after Curling Canada offered to host it within the Calgary bubble as well. In between the men's and women's world championships, the Grand Slam of Curling would also hold their previously cancelled Champions Cup and Players' Championship. The World Curling Championships would present the first disruptions of competition within the bubble due to positive tests. During the men's championship, playoff matches on 10 April were postponed due to multiple positive tests being recorded, including one member of a playoff team (who was already vaccinated, and later tested negative), and four among players from eliminated teams. The four tests were later deemed false positives, and play resumed the next day. Due to the second wave of cases nationwide, in December 2020 USA Curling cancelled its 2020 Seniors Championship, and delayed all of its other national championships to no earlier than May 2021. As this falls after the world championships, USA Curling announced that its berths would therefore be given to the teams that were to represent the United States in 2020. The Arena National Championships were later cancelled, and the Junior and Mixed championships were postponed to later in the year. The 2021 Canadian Olympic Curling Trials were held in Saskatchewan, whose only restrictions on sporting events by November 2021 were a proof of vaccination requirement for attendees. However, Omicron variant would begin to lead to the cancellations of other events, including the Continental Cup for the second season in a row, as well as the Olympic mixed doubles trials, most provincial playdowns for the 2022 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, the Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Championship, U Sports/Curling Canada University Curling Championships, Canadian Colleges Athletic Association Curling Championships, and Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championship. The Scotties was held behind closed doors for the second season in a row due to Ontario restrictions, with a limited audience of tournament volunteers and local junior curlers from the Thunder Bay area invited to attend the playoff rounds. ==Cycling==

Road cycling 2020 , wearing a face mask, is interviewed after the 2nd stage of the 2020 Tour de France. The journalist is maintaining physical distance between himself and the cyclist using a pole with the microphone attached to the end. The 2020 UAE Tour was scheduled to run until 29 February, but was abandoned following stage five after two support staff tested positive for coronavirus. Of the following nineteen 2020 UCI World Tour races scheduled to take place up to 31 May, only Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Paris–Nice, which also had the final day of racing removed, took place at the intended time, some with the stated hope of taking place at a later date. The postponed races in this block include the 2020 Giro d'Italia and four of the five annual monuments, and many lower category races were also cancelled or postponed. Also races of the 2020 UCI Women's World Tour were cancelled or postponed. On 15 March, UCI requested the suspension of all UCI-sanctioned events in affected territories until 3 April, and the qualification for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games to stop retroactively as of 3 March. On 18 March, the suspension of events were extended at least until the end of April. On 1 April, the suspension was extended until 1 June, and on 15 April, it was extended until 1 July for the international races, and until 1 August for the UCI World Tour races. On 14 April, the annual Tour de France, originally scheduled for 27 June – 19 July, was postponed due to the country's strict measures with the coronavirus as the government extended a ban on mass gatherings until July. The following day, ASO and UCI rescheduled the race for 29 August to 20 September, and it was ultimately held at that time. A revised calendar for both the men and the women was issued on 5 May, which was updated on 12 June. On 15 July, the first UCI-sanctioned race after the suspension, Dookoła Mazowsza was commenced. The first UCI World Tour race after the suspension was Strade Bianche on 1 August, which was moved from its original schedule in March. On 23 July, the GP de Québec and the GP de Montréal races scheduled for September in Quebec City and Montreal were cancelled. On 9 October Paris–Roubaix and the inaugural edition of Paris–Roubaix Femmes (originally scheduled for 25 October) were added to the listed of cancelled races. 2021 For the 2021 UCI World Tour, the tour's three events in Australia in January–February (the Tour Down Under, Great Ocean Road Race, and Herald Sun Tour), and also Hamburg Cyclassics (August in Germany), Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec and Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal (September in Canada), Tour of Guangxi (October in China) were cancelled. Paris–Roubaix, originally scheduled in April, was postponed to October. Many UCI ProSeries and continental circuit races were cancelled, some races such as Tour of Qinghai Lake (usually class 2.HC) and Tour of Japan (2.1) downgraded themselves to the class 2.2 and held with domestic teams only during the international travel restrictions. 2022 For the 2022 UCI World Tour, the tour's Australian events were once again cancelled due to local restrictions; although the possibility of holding the Great Ocean Road Race later in the season was suggested, it was ultimately cancelled in full due to a lack of available dates. The Tour Down Under was replaced in both years by a "Festival of Cycling" headlined by races in Australia's National Road Series. 2023 Following stage 9 of the Giro d'Italia, pink jersey Remco Evenepoel tested positive for COVID-19 and withdrew from the race. 2024 Sepp Kuss was initially set to participate in the Tour de France, but he withdrew from the Critérium du Dauphiné due to COVID-19 symptoms and was subsequently removed from the Tour de France roster. Some riders including Tom Pidcock withdrew from the Tour de France for COVID-19 symptoms, and the race organizer reintroduced protective protocols. BMX Race days of the 2020 UCI BMX Racing World Cup were cancelled including 2 to 3 May in Papendal, the Netherlands. The 2020 UCI BMX World Championships, scheduled to take place in Houston, United States on 26–31 May, were postponed. Other The annual Cape Epic endurance race scheduled from 15 to 22 March was cancelled. ==Darts==

The Professional Darts Corporation's European Tour was impacted by the coronavirus; with the 2020 European Darts Grand Prix, the 2020 European Darts Open and the 2020 German Darts Grand Prix all being postponed following restrictions on gatherings implemented by federal governments in Baden-Württemberg, North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria, respectively. The tournaments were officially cancelled on 29 May, with the PDC announcing the European Tour would downsize from the initial plan of thirteen events to five, including one from before the restrictions came in. The 2021 PDC World Darts Championship was initially able to host 1,000 spectators under English "Tier 2" restrictions. However, the event was moved behind closed doors after the government announced that London would be moved to Tier 3 restrictions that prohibited indoor gatherings. ==Disc golf==

The impact of the pandemic on esports was primarily on events and leagues that host competitions in-person (typically to reduce latency between players that can impact games played over the internet, and to allow for an in-person audience in a similar fashion to traditional sporting events), which led to cancellations and postponements, and competitions being held behind closed doors—either in the traditional sense, or with competition being conducted entirely over the internet rather than in-person, with streaming broadcasts (as are typical for esports). Sportcal suggested that the esports industry had an opportunity to attract mainstream sports fans as a "viable alternative" to traditional sporting events. Roundhill Investments CEO Will Hershey predicted that games that are straightforward for casual viewers to understand (such as sports games) could see particular interest among this new audience. Some sports teams took advantage of sports games in a similar manner, such as the Phoenix Suns holding NBA 2K20 streams with guest players, between the teams the Suns were scheduled to play that night if the NBA season had continued. This culminated with a game being broadcast by the team's radio commentators on team flagship KMVP-FM. Sports broadcasters also took advantage of esports as a form of replacement programming, with leagues partnering to hold televised tournaments in sports games featuring their players, or in some cases (such as ESPN2 simulcasting the 2020 League of Legends Championship Series) acquiring professional esports events to air on television. The IndyCar Series and NASCAR announced partnerships with sim racing platform iRacing to hold online invitational events featuring series regulars. The inaugural eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series event drew a television audience of 903,000 on Fox Sports 1—making it the most-watched esports broadcast on U.S. linear television since a 2016 Mortal Kombat X tournament aired by The CW. This record was surpassed the following week with a Texas Motor Speedway race — also aired by the main Fox network — which attracted 1.339 million viewers. After being well-received, a second, 10-event eNASCAR iRacing series was announced for 2021, mainly to fulfill television inventory with its media partners Fox and NBC (as NASCAR continued its COVID-19 protocol of not holding practice or qualifying sessions at events). The series ran on selected Wednesday nights during the NASCAR season, primarily featuring existing tracks with a change to their surface or vehicle configuration. ==Fencing==

On 3 March 2020, the Fédération Internationale d'Escrime (FIE) issued its first bulletin on COVID-19 precautions. On 10 March FIE strongly recommended that all participants in its competitions (athletes and other members of national delegations) fill and carry with them a questionnaire about their health status. On 12 March a FIE circular reported the postponement of six World Cup or Grand Prix competitions and the World Junior/Cadet Championship. Since the World Cup and Grand Prix events were part of the qualifications for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the circular warned on the need to postpone the zonal qualifications tournament for the Olympics. and the suspension of all international fencing competitions, including the 2020 Men's épée World Cup, Men's sabre World Cup, and Women's épée World Cup. the senior World Fencing Championships for that year did not occur since they are not held during Olympic years. During the pandemic, FIE provided financial support to member organizations, competition organizers, athletes, and referees. Individual countries had different decisions. For example, on 4 April the Federazione Italiana Scherma announced it was suspending all competitions until 31 August. ==Field hockey==

Many field hockey leagues in Europe have been suspended or curtailed, including in Spain, England, Germany, and the Netherlands. The 2019–20 Euro Hockey League Final 8 and 2020 Euro Hockey League Women seasons were suspended on 12 March. The 2020 Men's EuroHockey Club Trophy I, 2020 Men's EuroHockey Club Trophy II, 2020 Boys' EuroHockey Youth Championships, and 2020 Girls' EuroHockey Youth Championships were cancelled. In Asia, the 2020 Men's Hockey Junior Asia Cup, 2020 Women's Asian Champions Trophy, and 2020 Women's Hockey Junior Asia Cup were postponed. The 2020 Sultan Azlan Shah Cup was originally postponed to 24 September. But on 2 May the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup was officially cancelled. ==Figure skating==

; 2019–20 season The 2020 World Junior Championships, held on 2–8 March in Tallinn, Estonia, were the last major event to be held amid rising concerns about the pandemic. All remaining events on the season calendar, including the World Championships, were cancelled. The 2020 World Championships, originally scheduled for 16–22 March 2020 in Montreal, Canada, were first postponed on 11 March by the Quebec Health Ministry. On 12 April 2020, ISU Vice-president for Figure Skating, Alexander Lakernik, told media that the chances of rescheduling the championship were slim, due to the ongoing pandemic. The ISU confirmed a complete cancellation of the event, with no chance of postponement to a later date, on 16 April 2020. ; 2020–21 season The 2020–21 ISU Junior Grand Prix series was cancelled on 20 July 2020. Over half of the events of the 2020–21 ISU Challenger Series were either also cancelled by the host federations or postponed to an unspecified later date. The Challenger Series events were held as individual events, and thus did not award prize money based on overall series rank. The 2020–21 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating events were heavily modified to accommodate ongoing travel restrictions and the series' culminating event, the 2020–21 Grand Prix Final, was postponed from its original date of 10–13 December in Beijing, China. On 14 October 2020, the second event in the Grand Prix series, the 2020 Skate Canada International, was cancelled by the host federation. On 19 October 2020, the fourth event in the series, the 2020 Internationaux de France, was also cancelled. In November, the Grand Prix Final was first removed from being held in China altogether, before being definitively cancelled on 10 December 2020. On 16 October 2020, the ISU announced the cancellation of the 2021 Four Continents Championships. On 24 November 2020, the 2021 World Junior Championships were also cancelled. On 10 December 2020, the 2021 European Championships became the third ISU Championships event of the season to be cancelled. During the event, two athletes and an unknown third person tested positive for COVID-19, with at least one other athlete testing positive in the weeks following the competition. Several countries postponed or cancelled their national championships. U.S. Figure Skating relocated the 2021 U.S. Championships to be able to create an isolated bubble environment similar to that of 2020 Skate America, both of which were held at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. Due to skaters' limited availability to travel to competitions, the ISU announced that ISU World Standings and Season's World Ranking points would not be awarded at early season events, including the ISU Challenger Series and the ISU Grand Prix. Scores earned at the domestic Grand Prix events also did not count as official ISU scores for the purposes of achieving minimum TES requirements or as personal/season's bests. ; 2021–22 season The 2021–22 ISU Junior Grand Prix series was largely held as scheduled – the second event was relocated from Canada to France – but several countries were unable to attend certain stops due to travel restrictions, resulting in the creation of a reallocation process for quota spots on a case-by case basis. Other federations, including the Japan Skating Federation and the Chinese Skating Association, chose to forego the series entirely. Similarly, the 2021–22 ISU Challenger Series was also able to largely take place as scheduled, with the exception of the cancelled 2021 CS Nepela Memorial; however, several events were unable to attract a sufficient number of entries to qualify Challenger status. On 16 August 2021, the ISU announced the cancellation of 2021 Cup of China, citing the limited number of international flights to China and strict COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. The ISU announced the 2021 Gran Premio d'Italia as the replacement event on 27 August after asking for applications from alternate hosts. On 2 December, the ISU announced the postponement of the 2021–22 Grand Prix Final and Junior Grand Prix Final in Osaka, due to travel restrictions imposed by the Japanese government in response to the newly discovered Omicron variant. The ISU left open the possibility that the event could be rescheduled near the end of the season, but ultimately announced on 17 December that the Grand Prix had been cancelled in full, as it was "impossible to find a solution to maintain this Event". On 13 September 2021, the Chinese Skating Association withdrew from hosting the 2022 Four Continents Championships. The proximity of the event in timing and location to the 2022 Winter Olympics raised questions over whether the Olympics could be safely held by China. The ISU again asked for other ISU members to apply as alternative hosts. After receiving no applications from eligible members, the ISU relocated the event—intended for non-European skaters—to Tallinn, Estonia, which would host the 2022 European Figure Skating Championships one week prior. Several countries postponed or cancelled their national championships, including Australia and China, for a second consecutive season. ==Futsal==